Product Development Manager

We have been retained by a global leader in natural color solutions for the food, beverage, and pet food industries. Our client harnesses the power of nature’s true colors and passionately believes that natural is best! We're seeking a Product Development Manager to join their growing team!

This role operates independently to develop colors for various applications and scale them for production, supporting company growth! It partners closely with the commercial team, serving as a technical advisor to sales. The ideal candidate has a strong background in food science (preferably food chemistry), experience in product development project management, and cross‑functional collaboration with production, quality, and sales. Experience in analytical chemistry and method development/validation is a plus.

• Manage the Product Development Team
• Lead and manage color formulation projects in collaboration with customers, sales, and internal teams
• Act as project manager from concept through launch, following defined processes
• Develop color formulations at bench scale based on customer needs
• Scale formulations for production across global facilities
• Provide onsite customer consultation from development through commercialization
• Serve as technical expert for the sales team on color formulations
• Support production during scale‑up and troubleshooting
• Ensure safety compliance and promote safe working practices
• Operate lab and pilot equipment with minimal supervision
• Train QC and production teams on new formulations and analytical methods

• M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Food Chemistry, Food Science, or related field with 10+ years relevant experience
• Strong project and stakeholder management experience, ideally within development projects
• Deep understanding of food ingredients and processing; experience with color ingredients is a plus
• Experience working directly with customers and leading customer‑driven projects
• Managerial experience with cross‑functional collaboration
  
  General knowledge of analytical techniques, food quality, and safety
• Ability to analyze technical data, prepare reports, and present findings
• Excellent color vision; must be able to distinguish colors across applications (testing required)

• Seniority level:
  Mid‑Senior level
• Employment type:
  
  Full‑time
• Job function:
  Research
• Industries:
  Food and Beverage Manufacturing

Location:

Racine, WI | Salary: $80,000.00–$